1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to mobile communications equipment and is particularly directed to a cellular telephone of the type which includes a computer-controlled graphics display. The invention is specifically disclosed as a portable intelligent communications device that has a touch screen display in which the graphics user interface displays choices as xe2x80x9ctabsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cimage buttonsxe2x80x9d that are physically large enough to be actuated by a human finger.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of portable laptop computers have been available for many years, and their flat panel displays typically run in a Windows(trademark) environment as the graphics user interface. Windows-compatible computer programs that execute on laptop computers typically use pull-down menus so the user can select from various choices to operate the executing program, and many times choices will be presented to the user using a drop down list in which the user can type in certain information, such as operating parameters or filenames. In using these pull-down menus or drop down lists, the user of a laptop computer must typically have a pointing device, such as a mouse or a controlled cursor that moves across the screen. Most drop down lists will present an expanded list of choices if the user clicks the pointing device on a down arrow within the vertical scroll bar of a smaller window, in which the choices will be presented.
In a complex computer system, displaying all of the menu choices and control panels selections of interest to the user at one time may require an inordinate amount of display real estate, especially for portable computers with limited display sizes, such as in laptop computers. For portable computers having case sizes even smaller than laptop computers, the relatively small size of the associated graphics display will require some changes to the xe2x80x9cnormalxe2x80x9d method of displaying menus and control panels, which may tend to make such displays even smaller and more concentrated.
Portable telephones, particularly cellular telephones, have also been available for years. Most such equipment is computer controlled, in which the cellular phone includes a microprocessor or other processing control unit, along with sufficient random access memory to store some of the parameters that can be selected by the phone""s user. Some telephones include a relatively small liquid crystal display which can show various types of information, including the telephone number being dialed, and/or the telephone number of a call being received. Such displays are typically limited to alphanumeric characters, and do not lend themselves well to displaying graphical data or images.
It would be desirable to provide a portable telephone with a high-resolution graphics display in order to make better use of the processing power that is available when including a microprocessor within the portable telephone. Such a device could be configured to run computer programs that are comparable to Windows-type software in the form of word processors, spreadsheets, and other communications software such as a web browser.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that has the capability of acting as a cellular telephone and as a laptop computer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that includes a cellular telephone and a high-resolution graphics display screen that is touch sensitive, and so can be used without a pointing device such as a mouse.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that acts as a cellular telephone and includes a touch screen display in which the target areas for selection by a user are increased to a size sufficient that a person""s finger can be used to make the selections.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that includes a cellular telephone and a touch screen display, in which a menu system that supports finger based navigation is provided, and a graphical user interface is provided that consists of virtual tabs and image buttons that can be selected by a human finger.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a portable intelligent communications device that includes a cellular telephone and a touch screen display which is capable of moving and automatically naming tabbed control panels based upon control names.
Additional objects, advantages and other novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned with the practice of the invention.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects, and in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, an improved portable intelligent communications device is provided which includes a portable or cellular telephone and a computer-controlled touch screen display. The touch screen display is a high-resolution graphics display, and while it is smaller in size than a standard laptop computer display, the touch screen display of the present invention acts as a graphical user interface in which various executable computer programs can be accessed and executed on the portable intelligent communications device. A microprocessor controls the graphics display, and also controls a modem that communicates with the transmitter/receiver portion of the cellular telephone. Under control of the microprocessor, the portable intelligent communications device can communicate over the Internet by use of a web browser program resident in the portable intelligent communications device.
Since the touch screen graphics display is smaller in size than a standard laptop computer""s display, the information boxes and menu selections are re-sized so as to fit on the smaller screen, but at the same time, each of the choices is made large enough in surface area so that a human finger can tactilely operate the touch screen display without the need of a more precise pointing device (such as a mouse). Instead of using pull-down menus or drop down lists (as in most Windows-type interfaces), the graphical user interface of the present invention provides a selection list based upon virtual xe2x80x9cimage buttonsxe2x80x9d in which each image button is labeled to describe the option that can be selected by pressing that button. Each button has a sufficiently large target area that can be easily pressed using a human finger, which not only makes it easier to use finger-based navigation, but also provides the user with a visual cue.
The menu system of the present invention is actuated by the use of virtual tabs (or control buttons) and virtual image buttons, which have been appropriately sized to support finger touches on the touch screen display. In situations where touching a tab or control button opens a second level of the menu (often called a xe2x80x9cdialogxe2x80x9d), this second level of menu choices is either docked adjacent to the display""s work area, or is launched as a floating window on top of the work area. This is quite different from prior menu applications that use Windows(trademark), which typically cascade their second level of menu choices with the control button at the top of the opened window.
Another aspect of the present invention allows the user to reconfigure the control buttons which are provided as a tabbed panel for easy actuation on the touch screen display. Rather than providing a fixed pull-down menu set of choices, the display shows a series of file folders having tabs that are displayed at different horizontal locations on the screen. The user of the portable intelligent communications device can drag and drop the tabs (i.e., the control buttons) so that these controls can be re-ordered. In addition, the user may wish to change the entire grouping and move a control button from an old control panel to a completely new panel. When this occurs, the new panel is automatically created. Furthermore, the user can drag a control button from one control panel area of the screen and drop the control button into the xe2x80x9ctab areaxe2x80x9d of the control panel at a location where no tab previously existed. When that occurs, a new tab is automatically created having the same name as the original control button.
Still other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in this art from the following description and drawings wherein there is described and shown a preferred embodiment of this invention in one of the best modes contemplated for carrying out the invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification in various, obvious aspects all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and descriptions will be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.